AN academic believes he has found a way to understanding the communist state of North Korea: by reading its comic books.

Heinz Insu Fenkl, a literature professor at the State University of New York who describes himself as an American-Korean, produces English translations of the hard-to-find graphic novels, which are called "gruim-chaek" in North Korea.

There is also a tradition in Japan’s otaku culture that even such inanimate things as trains or computer operating systems can be changed into cute characters meant to inspire a moe (fondly adoring) response.

no matter how lightly or harmlessly it may be intended, depicting a nation or ethnic group in a manga or animation is inevitably undertaken at great risk. The manga happened to have attracted protests from South Korean Internet users, but there is no guarantee that it will not receive similar protests from other countries.